Restoration approach
Mexico’s Restoration approach includes:
- Agroincentives
- Productive reconversion of agricultural land
- Protected agriculture
- Irrigation technification to increase production on agricultural land
- Biological corridors
- Active forest restoration
- Strengthening of hydrological basin schemes as planning units for forestry
- Promotion of natural forest succession in degraded areas
Related initiatives
Bonn Challenge, Initiative 20x20, NY Declaration on Forests
Objectives
Under Initiative 20x20, Mexico plans to restore nearly 8.5 million ha of degraded land by 2020. In 2014, CONAFOR (the National Forest Commission), under the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, pledged to restore 1 million ha of forest cover, and SAGARPA (Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food) pledged to restore 7,468,284 ha of degraded agricultural land.
SAGARPA’s plan has the following restoration components:
- 5,600 ha of protected agriculture
- 3,500,000 ha using agroincentives and 3,500,000 ha using productive reconversion
- 840,000 ha through irrigation technification
- 867,398 ha through the CONAZA (National Commission on Arid Zones) National Rehabilitation Program
Mexico’s restoration objectives include recovery of ecosystem services, increasing productivity, and mitigation of climate change.
Financing mechanisms
Agricultural incentives are laid out by Title II of SAGARPA’s 2017 Rules of Operation. Chapter IV of Title II focuses specifically on improving land productivity, and includes Sections on reclaiming contaminated soil and irrigation technification. Similar incentives for livestock or small producers can be found in the corresponding sections of the Rules of Operation. Government funding for projects and incentives comes from national groups like:
- Fideicomiso de Riesgo Compartido (FIRCO) – SAGARPA’s shared risk trust for agribusiness and rural development
- Financiera Nacional de Desarrollo Agropecuario, Rural, Forestal, y Pesquero (FND) – National Funding for Agrocultural, Rural, Forestry, and Fishery Development
Incentives, especially significant ones, “may be supplemented by financing of development banks and other public, private, national and international financial institutions.”
Grants from GEF, FAO, and the World Bank support Mexico’s restoration projects. Some of these grants include Sustainable Productive Landscapes ($21.8 million USD GEF Grant and $139 million USD co-financing) and the Sixth Operational Phase of the GEF Small Grants Programme in Mexico ($4.4 million USD GEF Grant and $8 million USD co-financing).
